The Volunteer
by Six of Twelve
Summary: Seven of Nine tells Captain Janeway how she came to be chosen to represent the Borg Collective in their collaboration to defeat Species 8472.


**Author's Note: T _he usual disclaimers apply. Just a bit of something I came up with while first waking up this morning._**

 _ **=/\= =/\=**_

Seven of Nine briefly checked the cargo bay to make sure all was in order as she stepped from her regeneration alcove at the end of her cycle. All was well, so she went to the computer terminal to enter her morning post in her private, personal log, using Borg script.

She'd been aboard Voyager for six months now, with the time passing quickly, spent mostly attending to new duties. And while she was becoming slowly accustomed to life among humans, she took solace in maintaining the same routines that had been comfortable and familiar to her as a drone aboard the Borg cube to which she'd been assigned. Having duties to perform and being useful had made the process more bearable.

Quickly glancing at the now-unused regeneration alcoves that stood in a row near her own, she thought of the other drones who'd been briefly aboard Voyager, whom Commander Chakotay had blown out into the vacuum of space. Not for the first time, Seven missed their presence; if they'd remained aboard and had also been severed from the larger Collective, they could have all took comfort in being a small collective together. But wishing about things that could not be was an unproductive waste of time, so she banished the thoughts from her mind and left the cargo bay to begin her day's duties.

=/\= =/\=

Several hours later, Seven's combadge chirped.

"Captain to Seven of Nine. Report to the ready room."

"Acknowledged."

She sighed briefly, but otherwise showed no emotion, as she left her post to comply with the Captain's order. Captain Janeway had invited her to eat lunch with her, as she had begun doing, from time to time, since the former Borg drone had begun ingesting nutritional supplements.

Seven still didn't feel comfortable with eating and rarely did so in the presence of others. She'd hoped that the Captain would have forgotten about today's lunch, but that had turned out to be a forlorn hope. Captain Janeway also used these shared lunches as an opportunity to get updates on Seven's progress in acclimating herself to her new environment, and she knew that today would be no different. She sighed again at the thought of the largely irrelevant conversation that was soon to happen, that took time away from more productive duties.

"Ah, Seven," Kathryn Janeway greeted as the younger woman entered the room. "Please, have a seat." Indicating the small replicator against one wall, she urged, "Get yourself something to eat."

Seven of Nine still preferred not to sit, nor did she wish to eat, but she knew that informing the Captain of this would be pointless and would extend the time away from her duties. So, she complied, choosing a bowl of plain tomato soup from the replicator.

"I think you might want to have a grilled cheese sandwich, or at least some crackers with that," Janeway advised when she saw the spare meal that Seven brought to the table. "That isn't sufficient for the long afternoon of work ahead of you."

Seven did not reply, but went back to the replicator and added the two suggested items to her tray, along with a glass of water. The Captain had already replicated her own meal, so the two women spent several minutes in silence as they ate.

After they finished, Janeway refilled her coffee mug and resumed her seat, knowing that Seven would refuse a mug of her own.

"So, tell me about your week," the Captain began, as she leaned back in her chair to sip her coffee. "Any problems or concerns?"

Seven didn't have any relevant concerns to mention, so she merely gave a dry recital of the duties she'd completed and outlined the work she was currently doing and planning for the near future. After mentioning that her latest checkup with the Doctor had revealed nothing amiss, she began to rise, eager to return to her duties. But the Captain held up a hand, indicating that she should remain seated.

After Seven had settled back, Captain Janeway regarded her carefully for moment before speaking. "Recently, I've been thinking back about the day we met," she said. "And one thought keeps returning to my mind."

"Yes, Captain?"

"I was wondering if the Collective's choice of you, a human-born drone, as their representative while we dealt with Species 8472, was a purposeful thing, or simply a random choice."

Pausing to take another sip of her coffee, she continued, "The reason I ask is that assimilated humans must be a distinct minority in the Delta Quadrant."

"Assimilated drones do not always remain in the quadrants in which they were assimilated, but are often sent to new duty assignments elsewhere," Seven explained. "But you are correct in your assumption that Species 5618 drones are far less common in the Delta Quadrant than in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants."

"Species 5618?" Janeway raised an eyebrow. "I assume that is the designation for humans?"

"Correct," the former drone affirmed. "And to answer your question, your speculations were also accurate. My assignment to represent the Collective was no random choice." Looking the older woman in the eye, she admitted, "I _volunteered_ to be the representative and the others agreed that it should be so."

Janeway was nonplussed. After taking a moment to digest this revelation, she asked, "Why did you volunteer? When I first noticed that you were human, you didn't really want to talk about it."

"It was thought that the collaboration to defeat Species 8472 would proceed more efficiently if you could work with someone born of your own species, whose appearance would be somewhat familiar." Looking the Captain in the eye again, she continued, "It was also thought that my being born human would also lull you into a false sense of security, which would have made the later assimilation of your crew easier to accomplish at the proper time."

"I...see," Janeway acknowledged, disappointed, but not especially surprised by Seven's answer, thinking again of Chakotay's scorpion story. "But was that your reasoning or that of the Collective?"

"There was no difference," Seven insisted. "The Collective's thoughts were my thoughts."

She looked away from Kathryn Janeway for a moment, uncomfortable with her scrutiny.

Meeting the Captain's gaze once more, she admitted, her voice barely audible, "I was curious. That is why I volunteered."

"Go on."

After noting Janeway's surprised expression, she explained, "As you also suspected, I had retained memory fragments of my parents and life before I was assimilated. I wanted to see if interacting with humans would be anything like what little I remembered and if the interaction would cause me to remember more memories. I didn't want to leave the Collective, but I simply wanted to know more about who I'd once been and where I'd come from."

"I see," Janeway replied, giving Seven an encouraging smile. "Thank you for telling me this. It helps me to better understand you."

"You are welcome," Seven of Nine responded in her usual no-nonsense tone of voice, still uncomfortable with the phrases of human courtesy. "May I return to my duties now?"

"Yes, you may. And...thank you."

Seven of Nine gave a brief nod, then turned and left without another word. As she strode briskly back to her duty station, she realized that this time spent with the Captain had not been such a waste, after all.


End file.
